Oops!!!

The biggest mistake ever!

I put the first coat of stain on the coffee table two night's ago and waited for about 8 hour. Touch and felt the table yesterday morning and thought it was dry enough to put the second coat on. Came home from dropping off Jeannie to the seminary and struggled whether I should read my scripture first or to stain the table, and I chose the latter.

As I was trying to get myself ready, I discovered some unwanted particles (possibly dust) sticking on top of the table. Of course, it's unavoidable to have dust in the air, but under my imaginary magnifying glasses, these minute particles look humngous and so annoying that I decided to get rid of them by lightly sanding the table down -a trick I learned from a friend who is very experienced in woodworking.

But, what about the instructions I've read from the label? It reads clearly, "no sanding between staining!" Up in my head... "Well, I can sand it when it's dry!" So, I ignored the instruction totally, worked on the table with my sandpaper, and thought to myself, "In just a few minutes, I will have a nice, shiny and smooth... Hum, what's that on the table?"

Some eraser like residue appeared ALL over the table, and yes indeed they showed up in JUST A FEW MINUTES... Oh, my world!!! What did I do and how do I fix it? I knew there was nothing I could do to revive the situation except heavy sanding. So, instead of a 15mins. job, I made it to an hour. Nice huh! :P

Well, what have I learned?

1) Read my scripture first thing in the morning, and when prompted.
2) Read the instructions, and most importantly FOLLOW THROUGH!
3) No sanding between staining!

(It still bothers me that I could not figure out the cause of the mess. I wondered if the outcome might be different had I waited a few more hours before sanding or it's just an absolute "NO" sanding between staining? I will do an experiment to find out!)